Metaphor eyes 100 per cent growth

Metaphor Communications, part of the Triton group, has acquired business worth Rs 11-12 crore, which includes Anchor AVE super premium switching systems and Dr. Fix It from Pidilite Industries

agencyfaqs! News BureauMUMBAI

Metaphor Communications, part of the Triton group is on top gear. In the last two months, the advertising agency has accumulated business worth Rs 11-12 crore. Among its latest acquisitions, the big ones are Anchor AVE (a joint venture between Anchor Electricals and AVE of Italy) super premium switching systems, and Dr. Fix It (an adhesive-based repair product for home and construction work) from Pidilite Industries. Though the gain of Anchor AVE was not the result of a competitive pitch, Dr. Fix It had three agencies - Saatchi & Saatchi, Mudra, and Bates India - vying for it, besides Metaphor. It was on the back of a creative-cum-strategy pitch that Metaphor won the Dr. Fix It account.

As far as Anchor AVE is concerned, apparently the client approached the agency. Part of Metaphor's brief was to present campaigns for billboards and airport hoardings to promote Anchor AVE. While Anchor AVE has moved from O&M, Dr. Fix It is a new account. The two businesses would fetch Metaphor Rs 5 crore - Rs 5.5 crore in billing.

Both these brands would be communicated essentially through the print medium. However, Anchor AVE will be supported with a lot of outdoor activities in the form of hoardings around airports. The other new accounts in Metaphor's kitty are Arena Jewellery (a Mumbai-based jewellery retailer), Lawrence & Mayo (optician), Mother's Recipe (the India brand of American Dry Fruits), Fighter detergent powder (a brand from Kanpur-based Standard Surfactants), the launch event of Octavia (of Skoda Auto India), retail outfit Bhandani Home Store, and Psycho Tropics which is planning to launch a specialised soap brand. All these gains put together amount to Rs 6 crore.

The Mother's Recipe account moved from Triton, Mumbai. Talking about why it moved to Metaphor, Deep Bisen CEO, Metaphor, says, "It was a smallish account for Triton. On the other hand, the client was looking for senior counselling. Realising the comfort level was more with Metaphor, the client opted for Metaphor."

Talking about Fighter detergent, Bisen says, "Price competitiveness would be the brand's USP." Currently Fighter is available in Andhra Pradesh and it will be rolled out in Maharashtra soon. Bisen says, "The communication of the brand stems from the very name of the product. And we have used martial art form Karate in the TV commercial to bring forth the aggressive nature of the brand. We have done this by showing a housewife emulating a Karate fighter to fight the stubborn dirt particles on the clothes." The brand's media plan will be skewed towards television. Fighter detergent, which is being handled out of Mumbai, would eventually shift to the Delhi branch of the agency as the company is based in Kanpur.

agencyfaqs!'s meetings with the Metaphor brass seems to indicate its new-found aggression is part of a bigger plan to make a 100 per cent jump in its turnover. Metaphor, which grew rapidly in the last one year, closed its books in March 2001 at Rs 7.42 crore. By March 2002, the agency hopes to touch Rs 15 crore in billing across Mumbai and Delhi. Incidentally, 15-year-old Metaphor set up its Delhi branch just about a month back and handles among others, the advertising accounts of Bhandani Home Store and Psycho Tropics. The Delhi office, which is headed by Seema Dingra, an ex-Hakuhodo Percept hand, is the only branch of Metaphor outside of Mumbai.

For now, Mumbai-based Bisen is working overtime at his Delhi office, giving finishing touches to the inauguration plans of Octavia, scheduled for a grand launch later today.